Introduction:

   Shortly after finishing my article on FrozenCPU I was asked by Diceman if I would like to do an on-site visit with Performance-Pcs to give our readers a better idea of their operation. I jumped at the chance -not only because of excitement about the project - but also because I love to travel.I was not disappointed when I discovered they are based out of Florida.

Performance-Pcs Headquarters in Florida, USA

   I immediately started looking for plane tickets from my hometown in New York as driving was simply not an option. I found some but waited too long to get them, wrongly thinking they would still be available in a week. They no longer showed up in my searches and I was concerned this trip would possibly be postponed or even worse.

   The next night I decided to check again and to my surprise they were available, so this time I quickly bought them. The deal was sealed, and I had previously finalized planning with Hank (Owner of Performance-Pcs). The trip was from April 24th-26th - arriving on Sunday, visiting the business on Monday, and then flying home on Tuesday.

The adventure begins...

Day 1: (Touring Florida)

   I had to be at the airport by 5:30am for my 6:20am flight to Washington/Dulles. Ironically I was out late the night before and hoped I could catch up on sleep while flying. The flight to Washington was fine (especially since I slept for the majority for it).

   When I got to Washington I lucked out because my connecting gate to Orlando was only a few hundred feet away and I did not have to take any shuttles, which was a nice rarity. I relaxed for a few minutes while waiting to board at 7:50am. I was airborne yet again headed to Orlando. Again this flight was pretty smooth and I slept most of the way.

   When I arrived in Orlando I called Hank to see where he was. We were having some trouble finding each other because I guess Orlando International escalators go up and down 2 floors instead of 1 which was pretty confusing.

After I finally got on the right floor I noticed my taxi!!! Yes, this truck was some beast. I started walking towards Hank's truck when he abruptly took off, leaving me quite confused. As soon as he disappeared a nearby security guard stated that he had made Hank move because he had been waiting there too long. After Hank looped around the airport, I was able to finally meet up with him. Finally the fiasco at the airport was over and we started the hour long trip east towards Palm Bay where Performance-Pcs is located. Since it was only around 11am; we thought we would do a bit of official sight-seeing to kill some time.

The wetlands of Florida are simply an awesome site to behold, and what better way to see them than from an air boat ride! This was our first stop, Hank thought he would show me some stuff I could not see in New York. All the locals were giving me weird looks when I got on the boat because I had a camera and they probably laugh at tourists. It was a blast, although loud as hell it was a ton of fun. We flew over the water for about 30 minutes scoping out the wildlife. We ate at a restaurant adjacent to the air boat docks, where I ate a burger and some alligator before heading off to our next destination.

   The next stop was to Sebastian Inlet State Park to check out the fishing action because the outdoors rock. When we first arrived people were catching snook almost effortlessly. The guy in the corner shot above was drunk which made it all the more entertaining. The pelicans were rather used to people I guess as they let me get pretty close. Walking down the pier; I saw people catching a variety of fish.

   Once we got to the end of the pier a manatee decided to show himself but would never really present a good shot for me so I did my best. You can barely see the gray shadow in the water, but that's him. After leaving the park I snapped some quick pictures from the road.

    You are probably wondering why I put this picture in the article. Actually there is a very funny story behind this picture. After the state park Hank dropped me off at my hotel and went to finish some work before picking me up for dinner. I laid down in my bed and started to watch Desperado when I heard this Mexican fiesta music coming from next door, I know ironic isn't it? (For those who don't know, Desperado takes place in Mexico) Next thing I know a man is yelling and ran by my window with a shark in his hand. Little did I know my room was next door to a group of construction workers. I ran out there to see what was up and asked him if I could take a picture of it. He stated he had caught the shark across the street and posed quite willingly for his victory picture. For about another 2 hours the music kept going and they were still carrying on loudly outside.

   Hank arrived and knocked, and I answered the door to find him with a very odd look upon his face. Apparently my next door neighbors decided that they were going to butcher and grill the shark directly in front of my room. It looked like a small market outside, one man was filleting the shark while another was flaring up the grill. I just found this very amusing.

   Now it was dinner time! We decided that we would go to a local Japanese restaurant - which turned out to close early on Sundays, so we ended up going to a Italian restaurant which was very good.

   Over dinner Hank told me about the company, himself, and their history. He said his home and business were hit by the past hurricanes, and he just finished repairs before I arrived. He took me back to my hotel because the next day it was off to Performance-Pcs!